One of the most effective channels of disseminating and obtaining information is through direct, personal relationships referred to as a social network. A social network consists of individuals and their personal relationships to other individuals through which information and opportunities are exchanged. The direct, personal relationship implies that two people “know” each other and typically have a certain amount of trust for each other. One person may have more than one or several different social networks which is similar to a person having different groups of friends (e.g., family friends, work friends, school friends, party friends, etc.).
The value of a social network can be demonstrated for example by the “six degrees of separation” phenomenon, which means that the distance between any two individuals in terms of direct personal relationships is relatively small (e.g., 6 degrees or less). Social networks are frequently employed by individuals often without conscious thought. For example, a person may be searching for a job and contact his or her friends to determine if they are aware of available positions. These friends are able to provide reliable information about positions that they directly know about. These friends can also recommend their job-seeking friend for available positions. Furthermore, these direct personal relationships can be employed to obtain social information and/or opportunities such as, for example, information about possible romantic partners, good movies, restaurants, and/or buying, selling, or trading of items and services.
Direct personal relationships are particularly useful in obtaining information and opportunities because of the associated reliability of information and individuals involved. For example, an individual typically is more often willing to swap a vacation home (house-swap) with a friend of a friend, even though the individual may not personally know the friend of a friend, than to house-swap with a stranger. A basis for such trust is that the individual can trust that their immediate friend would not be associated with the person offering to house-swap (e.g., friend of the friend) if the friend of a friend was not reliable or trustworthy. More generally, the immediate friend can be trusted to offer an honest assessment of the trustworthiness of the third party. Social networks are often relied upon for opinion-based information such as for example, movies, restaurants, travel locations, and the like. Such information shared among a large number of the general populous is typically more relied upon than reviews from professional critics.
In the context of an online social network, there continues to be a problem of maintenance, control, and user regulation related to limited system resources and user behavior.